Created by PFFR—the minds behind Wonder Showzen—for [adult swim], Xavier: Renegade Angel is, on the surface, about an angel who has defected from Heaven. Good luck finding out what it is really about, though. The eponymous Xavier is either an actual fallen angel or just a cosmic abomination that was abandoned at birth. Forced to Walk the Earth because everyone hates him, Xavier tries to help people—but at worst, he invents problems where none exist and causes tons of carnage, and at best, he somehow gets everyone to put aside their differences and join together for the common goal of beating him senseless.

Probably the weirdest show [adult swim] has ever produced (andthat issayingalot), Xavier was largely one huge Mind Screw, with the title character speaking in a near-continuous, stream-of-consciousness...well, stream of dialogue ranging from narrative and conversation to puns and portmanteaus to "unintentional" double-entendres and callbacks. The show's only real coherent narrative revolves around a subplot involving Xavier's incredibly screwed-up childhood and the death of his adoptive father.

Xavier is uniquely abstract, showing concepts in a way that—instead of using thematic devices such as plot—creates connections in various patterns to prove a point. A good example is the episode "Signs From Godrilla": This episode explores the aspects of choice and free will by using various themes, including recursion and mind/body dualism, to aid in its expression.

The show was animated in 3D with (some) motion-capture all done in CGI, which allowed for a vast range of strangeness; it is all pretty damn trippy, to say the least. Do not take this as license to Watch It Stoned—it might make more sense, but it is just as likely that you will be utterly terrified from the sensory overload.

What Doth Tropes?

Abusive Parents: Xavier had these. In "Vibracaust", he tells his mother that his pet parakeet feeds her children every day, and then asks why she doesn't do the same thing. Xavier himself acts this way to a giant sperm in "Escape from Squatopian Freedom", though he learns to love it just before it kills itself.

A God Am I: The kid from "Weapons Grade Life" eventually declares after creating life (life, life) in a petri dish that he does believe in God after all, because he believes in himself.

Ambiguously Gay: Although he does display some heterosexual tendencies (like peeping in on a showering woman in the first episode), Xavier's frequent Double Entendre and Accidental Innuendo (as well as having sex with a coworker while crossdressed as a gigantic black woman in the same episode where he marries the widow of a man he kills) leaves it entirely unclear what his true sexual orientation could be. His snake hand, however, is referenced to be bisexual. Though it's only characterised this way in one episode ("El Tornadador"), but considering how confusing the continuity of the show usually is...

Anti-Hero: Xavier's goal is to help people, but all he ever succeeds in doing is spreading chaos and destruction. On top of that, he is extremely self-absorbed, hypocritical, idiotic, delusional and incompetent, preventing him from ever becoming particularly sympathetic.

Arc Symbol: The weird symbol in the "R" of the stylized title appears in every episode. In the Grand Finale we learn it is simply an inkblot on a Rorschach test a psychologist is showing Xavier in a metal institution, implying the reason it appears so frequently is that the whole show is merely Xavier's elaborate hallucination as he stares as it.

Bedlam House: Xavier sends the poor kid in a dolphin costume there, and ends up meeting his long lost mother. It just descends into Brain Bleach territory from there. It's heavily implied that Xavier has actually been in one the whole time and the entire series was actually his hallucinations.

Black Comedy Rape: Xavier mentions in the Grand Finale that "this is my first time, not counting rape". It's unclear if this is meant to be interpreted as him being a rape victim or a rapist. And then he finds out that the woman he's having sex with is his mother.

Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: "Fate. Destiny. Fatestiny. People throw these words around like tennis balls. But I eat balls for breakfast."

"Other kids could be cruel. They'd call me names. Dweeb. Chimp. Honkey. Dweeby Chimp. Honkey Dweeb. And worst of all, Chomsky Honk. Did you know there's over 87 combinations of those soul-scalding words? I found out the hard way."

Break the Haughty: Xavier does this to the spoiled child of the above mentioned rich old man to teach him humility and charity.

Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: In "Bloodcorn", a farmer fires a gun into the sky and hits God. The resultant blood rain causes the crops in the city to come alive and take vengeance on humanity.

Butt-Monkey: Xavier gets assaulted, humiliated, or almost killed in every single episode.

Cartwright Curse: Woe to anyone who befriends Xavier. Dying horribly would be the best possible outcome of their situation, considering that Xavier could easily destroy the entire planet or collapse reality as a whole as a result of finding a friend.

Continuity Cavalcade: Several characters from past episodes return near the end of "Signs of Godrilla".

Crapsack World: Even ignoring Xavier's presence in it, nearly every location shown in the series is a dilapidated shithole inhabited primarily by Jerkasses. The rare characters who are genuinely good-natured always end up meeting gruesome ends thanks to Xavier. Then again, so does everybody else. On top of all that, reality-distorting supernatural horrors seem to be commonplace, though they generally only cause problems when Xavier provokes them.

Deranged Animation: The entire show looks like it was rendered through a PlayStation 2. Cranked Up to Eleven and damaging the knob with "Damnesia You", the episode where the winners of a contest get their films shown in an Excuse Plot where Xavier goes to different dimensions to figure out his identity. Styles shown in the episode include:

Evolving Credits: During season 2, the first vanity plate in the credits has a sound added to it each episode. By the end, it's just a cluster of random noises from all the episodes.

Expositron 9000: Computer. Computer is featured in two episodes and has absolutely no explanation whatsoever. When Xavier needs a particularly difficult piece of exposition he simply calls "Computer!" and asks his specific question. Computer does some calculations and gets the answer back to him. I find it particularly funny because it's a trope seen so often I didn't even realize how illogical it was until watching again and thinking "Hey wait... why would some kind of magical psudo-shaman like Xavier have access to an AI computer he can call on at any time?" He isn't Batman or James Bond and you never learn anything about it, how it works, or why it's there. Computer is specially credited though.

Eye Scream: One episode features a vulture ripping out a dying man's eye and then flying away. The camera then briefly switches to perspective of the eye as the crow flies away.

Foreshadowing: Lampshaded in the first episode, where Xavier warns a group harassing him that they may some day need his help. Cue the camera focusing on a truck driving by with 'FORESHADOW' written on the side.

Lampshaded again in "Weapons Grade Life" (bolding where the camera suddenly zooms in on the character's lips)

Christian Doctor: "I'd swim through a lake of water for these cakes! That's the only way to quell the raging fire in my belly for these cakes."

Cake Shop Owner: "That's an odd thing to say."

It turns out to be a Red Herring, though, as when Xavier tries to lure the Doctor after he becomes a sentient explosion though a lake with some cake, nothing happens.

A surprisingly subtle example in the very first episode. When a redneck dies after drinking a giant bottle of AIDS, he sees a vision of his dead grandmother....whom he then proceeds to make out with. In the final episode of the series, Xavier sneaks into an asylum and does the same to his own mother.

"Going Normal": The company Xavier works for makes a hot dog chain to the Moon and back, which stops the rotation of the Earth, causing the Earth to freeze over. The show ends with Xavier informing you that your TV screen has frozen solid just before it cracks.

"Kharmarabionic Lotion": The town of Lotion, New Mexico makes so much money off of oil that they buy the network which makes the show, then sell it to Arabs at a profit. As a result, for the last minute or so of the show, all the dialogue is in Arabic.

Gainax Ending: Every episode has one. Yes, every episode. Perhaps the weirdest was "Bloodcorn", in which the Earth spawns a giant eye, which then starts bleeding profusely.

Hero with an F in Good: You can say Xavier might be the patron saint of this trope just by reading the rest of the page.

Hold My Glasses: It starts with someone who's about to fight Xavier having his friend hold his pile of books. By the time they get to the actual beating, his friend is also holding his wallet, sunglasses, contact lenses, shirt, prosthetic leg, dentures, tattoo, and robotic arm. But he gets upset when his friend asks if he wants him to hold his toupee, too.

Hypocritical Humor: "Weapons Grade Life" has Xavier encounter a boy in a wheelchair and his friends. He immediately accuses said friends of picking on the boy, while at the same time making as many backhanded insults towards him as possible.

In "Shakashuri Blowdown": "You look so superficial, you probably judge things by their appearances."

Ice-Cream Koan: Xavier speaks this as a primary language. And he believes every word of it. And he has an obsession with actual ice cream cones on top of that.

Xavier: I'm not violent at all, look! (Blasts a laser and kills a group of people playing volleyball)

Ink Blot: But you killed those people!

Xavier: Did I? (Aside Glance) What he doesn't know is that I'm using reverse psychology on him.

Ink Blot: I can tell you're trying to use reverse psychology on me.

Xavier: That proves he doesn't know!

Kangaroo Court: After being framed for killing a mayor and going to trial (for being on trial), Xavier is faced with a jury of his mental peers. Xavier is proven guilty of being on trial, and then sentenced to three glimpses into his own soul, which is immediately extended to seven when he scoffs at how easy it is.

Lampshade Hanging: Quite a bit of it. But a notable example is Xavier's boss in the episode "Going Normal". "I think I get what he's saying. He means we just gotta take wild leaps in interpreting his mundane statements and come up with our own ideas!"

The Mentor: In flashbacks, Xavier is frequently seen conversing with Chief Master Guru, an old Native American shaman-type character who acts as his abusive spiritual guide before dying and sending him off into the world (though he was really just playing dead to get him to go away.)

Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds / Person of Mass Destruction: Xavier is this in spades. Among the damage he's caused either directly or indirectly: burning down his own house and killing both his parents, turning an entire town into an infected computer in "What Life D-d-d-Doth", creating a massive living explosion which cannot dissipate in "Weapons Grade Life", wounding God causing a rain of blood in "Bloodcorn", blowing up the Burning Person effigy and killing all but 2 of the people at the festival in "Escape from Squatopian Freedom", turning the Earth into one homogenous mass and then destroying it in "Vibracaust", making a massive tornado in "El Tornadador", literally tearing a hole in the fabric of space time in "Haunted Tonk", and stopping the rotation of the Earth thus causing the entire world to freeze over in "Going Normal".

Mind Screw: The entire point of the show. If you are sober (or drunk on plain ol' liquor), prepare to be confused. If you have taken any other kind of mind-altering substance, prepare to be wowed, terrified, or both.

It's almost a parody of Mind Screws, while it may seem completely nonsensical, each episode can be attributed to different philosophical themes, but in the end of pretty much every situation, the moral of the story is, "Don't read too deeply into things or fucked up shit like this happens!" Seriously, every problem he creates can be attributed to him trying TOO HARD to be philosophical and spiritual.

Word of God half-jokingly claims that the show was meant to warn viewers about the dangers of spirituality.

Mirror Match: Two Xavier's engage in an insult battle and a "Shakashuri Blowdown" during the season 1 finale. Its ultimately judged a tie.

Miscarriage of Justice: In Damnesia Vu, Xavier ends up being given a gun in order to protect a new mayor, a donkey, only for the mayor to be shot by the guy who gave Xavier the gun, who then says that Xavier did it. When he goes to court to plea for his innocence, he learns that he is actually on trial for being on trial, and that by saying he's innocent, it proves that he is on trial.

Negative Continuity: The show has very little continuity even between individual scenes, let alone episodes.

News Travels Fast: When a man blows himself up and turns into a sentient explosion that doesn't dissipate, within seconds bystanders are already setting up tourist traps around the "Eversplosion" (and when the Eversplosion goes berserk, an army tank is already there to try and shoot at it.)

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: The vast majority of the problems that occur across the series are caused entirely by Xavier. The rare occasions where they aren't inevitably escalate into something much, much worse as a direct result of his meddling.

Noodle Incident: When a man takes off most of his own body in preparation to beat down Xavier, his friend remarks:

Politically Incorrect Hero: In "Weapons Grade Life", Xavier makes a lot of ableist comments towards the unnamed kid in a wheelchair. He's also made some politically incorrect remarks about Arabs and women. He's also a rapist and or necrophiliac, if some of his comments are to be believed.

Psychopathic Manchild: While it's fairly clear Xavier's intentions are usually noble, he is a freaking lunatic. There's not a problem he's come across that he hasn't just made worse.

Shout-Out: While traveling back to the present in episode 6, Xavier goes too far and ends up in the year 2112.

Small Name, Big Ego: Xavier believes himself to be a profound spiritual philosopher who wanders the land providing healing and assistance for troubled people. In reality, he's an insane idiot who ruins the lives of everyone he crosses paths with in a misguided attempt to resolve their (often nonexistent) problems.

Stable Time Loop: In "World of Hurt, B. C.", Xavier sees a news broadcast on the discovery of the oldest known cave painting, which depicts a being that looks very similar to him, and goes back in time to find out how it got there. Xavier tries to ask a caveman if he's seen it, but isn't sure how to describe it, so he makes a drawing of it on the cave wall. It turns out that drawing he made was the painting that was just discovered.

Xavier: I'm looking for a painting on the cave walls. Have you seen it? It looks like this. (Draws it)

Technical Pacifist: Xavier has vowed to never harm another. Despite this, he easily indirectly kills and/or inflicts severe wounds on hundreds of people across the series through his tendency to cause terrible things to happen everywhere he goes.

Tragic Hero: Despite all the wacky stuff that happens, you have to feel sorry for Xavier. His entire goal is to find out what he is, who killed his father, and to help people. And no matter what happens, it fails horribly.

Undercover Cop Reveal: Don Ho's singing henchman, Disgratzio, from the episode "Xavier's Maneuver". His high-pitched voice and candy-obsessed singing are just an act, one that he's had to stick with for twelve years due to making some poor choices as a rookie.

Unexplained Accent: The characters that Xavier encounters in the first episode all have southern accents, yet he's in Burbury, Connecticutnote Possibly a play on Danbury, Connecticut.

Vertigo Effect: Played with when a man points at Xavier from far away. After the zoom effect is done, we get a side view showing that the camera didn't zoom out, and the guy's arm just stretched so his hand is right in Xavier's face.

You Killed My Father: The series starts out with Xavier looking for the man who killed his parents. He is completely oblivious to the fact that he was the one who did it by accidentally burning his house down.

Father: Son! It was you who killed me!

Xavier: What kind of stupid name is Yoohoo? Well, when I find that demon I shall slay him! To death! Yoohoo? Yoohoo!?

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy